In Emergency, Kitsap County Jail Could House Inmates From King County

Corrections Officer Michael Graf examines a vacant cell in the west pod of the Kitsap County jail on Tuesday. Kitsap County has agreed to rent space in its jail to King County this winter if flooding forces evacuation of a major jail facility in Kent.
(LARRY STEAGALL | KITSAP SUN)

PORT ORCHARD -

The Kitsap County jail could get up to 114 temporary inmates if the Green River in south King County floods.

The King County Council on Monday approved a deal that would pay Kitsap County to provide jail space if flooding forces closure of the Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent. Kitsap County would be paid $28 per inmate per day under the deal.

The agreement will remain in effect through the end of 2010.

Ned Newlin, Kitsap County’s chief of corrections, said King County’s inmates would be housed in two areas in such an emergency: a currently empty 58-bed wing known as the west pod and the soon-to-be closed 56-bed work-release facility adjacent to the jail.

King County would bring its own corrections officers to supervise inmates. Kitsap would provide utilities, meals and an on-call nurse.

“It would be a jail within a jail,” Newlin said.

King County, which has also signed a contract with Pierce County for housing up to 168 inmates, is bracing for possible Green River flooding because of a weakened abutment at the Howard Hanson Dam.

King County likely would send over inmates serving sentences, as opposed to those awaiting trial, Newlin added.

The Kitsap County jail currently operates with 421 beds. None of those beds would be made available to King County, Newlin said. The jail is averaging about 370 inmates per day.

The cities of Bainbridge Island, Bremerton, Port Orchard, Poulsbo and Gig Harbor, as well as the Suquamish Tribe and the state Department of Corrections also have contracts to house prisoners at the Kitsap County jail. Each of those jurisdictions pay $80 per inmate per day. King County’s per-inmate fee is lower because it will be providing its own guards.

Kitsap’s new jail, paid for by a voter-approved $33 million bond measure, was completed in 2004. King County will be able to utilize one of the older pods built before the expansion that is currently unstaffed.

The work release facility’s closure was announced earlier this month. Newlin said they can no longer afford to staff the 56-bed unit, which was used to keep criminal offenders confined but allowed them to go to their place of employment.

Newlin said the contract with King County did not influence the work release facility’s closure.